An infant toy for drawing a colored picture which has been conventionally known in the art includes a magnetic migration display panel by way of example, which is so constructed that two substrates or panels are arranged so as to define therebetween a space in which a multi-cell structure including a plurality of cells is arranged. The cells each have a dispersion encapsulated therein, which includes magnetic particles made of a magnetic material such as magnetite, ferrite or the like, a dispersion medium and a coloring agent constituting a background, as well as a thickening agent added as desired.
The thus constructed conventional infant toy for drawing a colored picture is operated in such a manner that when a surface of the substrate on a front side of the magnetic migration display panel is contacted with a magnetic pen, the magnetic pen attracts the magnetic particles by means of magnetic force thereof, so that the magnetic particles may be transferred from an inner surface of the substrate on a rear side of the display panel to a rear surface of the front-side substrate due to migration, resulting in a black and white display or monochrome display being provided due to a difference in contrast between the dispersion and the magnetic particle.
Referring now to FIGS. 5A and 5B, a magnetic migration display panel conventionally used for the infant toy for drawing a colored picture is partially illustrated, which toy is generally designated by reference numeral 10. The magnetic migration display panel 10 includes two non-magnetic panels 12a and 12b arranged opposite to each other, which act as a viewer-side panel and a non-viewer-side panel, respectively. The panels 12a and 12b have a number of partitions 14 arranged therebetween, which cooperate with the panels 12a and 12b to provide a number of cells 16 of a honeycomb structure. In general, the viewer-side panel 12a is formed to have a thickness of about 0.2 to 0.3 mm, the partitions 14 are each formed to have a height of about 0.5 to 1.5 mm, the non-viewer-side panel 12b is formed to have a thickness of about 0.1 mm, and the cells 16 are each formed to have a maximum width of about 4 mm.
The cells 16 each have a dispersion 20 encapsulated therein, which includes magnetic particles 18, a dispersion medium and a coloring agent constituting a background, as well as a thickening agent added as desired. Thus, when a surface of the viewer-side panel 12a is scanned or contacted with a magnetic pen 22, the magnetic particles 18 are magnetically attracted by the magnetic pen 22, resulting in the magnetic particles 18 being moved to a rear surface of the viewer-side panel 12a due to migration, so that a character or the like described by contacting with the magnetic pen 22 may be displayed on the surface of the viewer-side panel 12a due to a difference in color or contrast between the coloring agent constituting the background and the magnetic particles. In general, since the magnetic particles 18 each have a black or dark-brown ground color, the coloring agent constituting the background is constructed to exhibit a white color so as to form a monochrome display.
Then, erasure of the character or the like thus displayed is carried out. For this purpose, a permanent magnet 24 for erasure arranged on a rear surface of the non-viewer-side panel 12b is slid along the surface of the panel 12b. This permits the magnetic particles 18 kept attracted on the rear surface of the viewer-side panel 12a to migrate to an inner surface of the non-viewer-side panel 12b, so that the character or the like may be erased. Thus, when the viewer-side panel 12a is viewed from a front side thereof, only the color of the dispersion 20 is seen, resulting in the character or the like being erased. The viewer-side panel 12a is constituted by a light diffusion plate of an opaque color such as, for example, white in order to prevent the color of the magnetic particles 18 from being seen therethrough when the display is not carried out.
Unfortunately, the conventional infant toy for drawing a colored picture adapted to exhibit a monochrome display and constructed as described above causes fickle infants to readily weary of it and become interested in another play when it is attempted to let them to learn characters, numerals or the like by means of the toy. Thus, the conventional infant toy fails to exhibit an appeal sufficient to attract infants without causing a reduction in efficiency. Also, magnetic particles described above made of magnetite, ferrite or the like have a black or dark-brown ground color, to thereby be suitable for a monochrome display. However, coloring of the magnetic particles using a coloring agent causes a color of the coloring agent to be deteriorated by the ground color of the magnetic particles, so that such magnetic particles are not suitable for a color display. In addition, the magnetic particles are generally formed to have a spherical configuration, to thereby fail to permit the coloring agent to exhibit satisfactory coloring properties, resulting in the coloring agent tending to be peeled or removed from the magnetic particles. Further, such magnetic particles fail to exhibit sufficient response to magnetic force.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an infant toy for drawing a colored picture which is capable of carrying out a multi-color display, to thereby be suitable as an intellectual training toy.